Donald
Trump has gained political strength since the Paris terrorist attacks
last Friday, according to most of the polls released in the aftermath.

Trump’s
gains show him once again confounding Beltway wisdom, where the
widespread view was that such a grave event would lead voters to look
toward White House candidates who are purportedly more mature and
sophisticated than the erstwhile star of “The Apprentice.”

Instead, it seems that Republican voters have found themselves drawn to Trump’s emphatic rhetoric.

“You
have voters who are saying loudly and clearly that they want a strong
leader to run our country, and that leader is Mr. Trump,” the business
mogul’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told The Hill. “Some of the
other candidates didn’t have that vision. ... They have not had the
foresight to predict these problems.”

Trump’s approach, which tends to be vigorous in tone but light on specifics, draws plenty of criticism even within the GOP.

“Trump
makes up for his shortcomings with his force of personality,” said one
Republican strategist in New Hampshire who did not want to be identified
but is not working for any of Trump’s presidential rivals. “I don’t
think that, on the global stage, you beat [Russian President Vladimir]
Putin by offering up your own Putin, in terms of macho charisma. It’s
far more involved than that.”

But many Republican
voters seem to welcome Trump’s bravado after last week’s assault on
French civilians that left 129 people dead. The Islamic State in Iraq
and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the massacre.

In
a WBUR poll of Republican voters in New Hampshire conducted just after
the attacks, Trump’s support had risen 4 points from a similar poll
released at the start of this month, and he was ahead of his closet
rival, retired surgeon Ben Carson, by a 2-1 margin.

A
poll conducted by Florida Atlantic University also found Trump way ahead
of his Republican competitors in the Sunshine State. He scored 36
percent support, exactly twice the level of backing secured by
second-placed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

And Trump’s strength isn’t just showing up in state-level “horse race” polls.

A
Reuters poll on Tuesday asked voters which of the candidates was
best-suited to deal with the threat of terrorism. Among Republican
voters, 36 percent opted for Trump. The next most popular response was
“none,” at 17 percent. Rubio was again in second place in the survey
among actual candidates, but he lagged Trump by 20 percentage points.

Voters’
views may yet shift as they absorb the implications of the Paris
atrocity. But for now, Trump’s rhetoric seems to be striking a chord.

In
an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel on Tuesday evening,
the real estate mogul insisted that U.S. mosques would have to be closed
in response to the threat of terrorism.

“You’re going
to have to do something,” he said. “Some bad things are happening and a
lot of them are happening in the mosque and you’re going to have to do
something.”

In radio ads released Wednesday in Iowa,
New Hampshire and South Carolina — which hold the first three contests
in the presidential nomination process — Trump insists, “We must address
Islamic terrorism and protect our country first. I will lead by
example, as I always have, by vowing to defeat ISIS, stop illegal
immigration and the Syrian refugee program, secure our border and bring
real change to Washington.”

At a rally Monday night in
Knoxville, Tenn., he earned big cheers when he insisted, regarding ISIS
that, “I’m going to bomb the s--- out of them.”

Even Trump skeptics acknowledge that this style has populist appeal at moments of public anxiety.

“It’s
true that his supporters see him as strong and they are not paying a
lot of attention to the specifics of what he is saying,” said GOP
strategist Matt Mackowiak. “I think people are fearful. They don’t know
what to believe but they certainly want a stronger response than
[President] Obama has offered.”

But Mackowiak, who
writes for The Hill’s Contributors blog, also argued that Trump and
Carson would slide as the Paris attack, and possible dangers to the
United States, remain in the headlines.

“My sense is
that it disadvantages Trump and Carson over the medium-to-long term.
Trump — you see it at the debates — he’s not even an inch deep” on
foreign policy,” Mackowiak said.

The next Republican
debate is almost a month away — scheduled for Dec. 15 in Nevada — and
beyond that, there is only one more clash set to take place before the
Iowa caucuses at the start of February.

That means
Trump’s rivals may need to find other ways to knock him off his perch.
On Wednesday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush delivered a defense-focused
speech at The Citadel in South Carolina.

Bush did not
name Trump, but the reality TV star was clearly in his sights when he
said that the Paris attacks “remind us ... that we are living in serious
times that require serious leadership.”

But such
claims will need to resonate more powerfully than they have thus far if
Bush is to have any chance. In the WBUR New Hampshire poll, the former
governor was mired at 7 percent support, less than one-third of Trump’s
22 percent.

Little wonder, then, that Trump aides evince such confidence.

“If
you look at the public polling as to who is strongest when it comes to
defeating ISIS, Mr. Trump is the clear winner,” said Lewandowski. “These
are not my assertions. These are what the polls say time and time
again. People want a person who is strong leader.”

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Words of Wisdom

"No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth."

Plato

"This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined, and I'm tired of people feeling like they've got to apologize for America."

Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN)

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell, the author of 1984

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Dr. Martin Luther King

"Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom."

Alexis de Tocqueville

"A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example."Niccolo Machiavelli

“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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